There exists a need for a practical and economical coil handling mechanism for positioning, handling and/or transferring metal coils from one location to another, particularly in mills as well as warehouses. The problem of handling metal coils is accentuated by the fact that the coils may be stored or disposed with their axis vertically or horizontally, or may be received on a pallet or conveyor with the axis either vertical or horizontal. Therefore, the coil handling mechanism is required to be selectively tiltable and preferably constructed to be conveniently coupled with and transported by a ceiling crane.
Metallic strip material is normally coiled to enable this material to be handled, and transferred to another location either for further processing or for shipment to a customer. By reason of the orientation of processing lines, as for example, that of a coil slitting station, the coiled strip is disposed on a horizontal axis and supported on a horizontally extending mandrel. These coils, even after slitting, are extremely heavy.
Although the coils are wound and unwound on a horizontal axis or after slitting are disposed on a horizontal axis, it is preferred to store or prepare the coils for shipment to customers with their axis vertical. In this manner, the coils are stable and may be stacked upon one another on a shipping skid or pallet for shipping.
While it has been proposed in the industry to use tilters to tilt newly formed coils from a horizontal to a vertical axis after coiling and then from a vertical to horizontal axis for further processing, these mechanisms are heavy and expensive and many are fixed and not capable of being readily moved from one location to another in a mill or customer plant.